The sun has been acting up this week, and normally that would produce auroral displays bright enough to see in Washington state.

But this isn’t a normal week: Western skies have been obscured by wildfire smoke, and although westerly winds are expected to push out a lot of that smoke overnight in the Seattle area, it’s debatable whether northern lights will be visible.

But in the Pacific Northwest, the delicate greenish glow of the aurora is likely to be overwhelmed by the dull reddish glow of the nearly full moon, shining through an obscuring haze of wildfire smoke:

Early indications suggest that the resulting coronal mass ejection will deal Earth’s magnetosphere a glancing blow, producing moderate auroral displays on Thursday night. But it’s not known exactly how clear our skies will get over the next few days. Although the wildfire smoke is expected to clear out, the forecast calls for the more usual kind of clouds.

The best advice is to watch the weather forecast, keep an eye on the auroral forecast – and, as always, watch the skies.